Break Away From Tradition with Authentic Assessments

Sep 14, 2010 by Susan Fitzell

How we assess students’ understanding of the content we are teaching is critical to the Response to Intervention process.

Unfortunately, schools are often locked into using multiple-choice tests, standardized measures of student achievement, and other traditional forms of written assessments.

Although one could make an argument that this must be the measure that teachers use because it is the measure required for state testing.  It is truly an inaccurate, and I would argue unethical, means of evaluating students.

The only true evaluation is authentic assessment which incorporates a variety of measures into the evaluation process and focuses on formative assessment.  Some types of authentic assessment include:

1. Rubrics
2. Exit cards
3. Curriculum-based measurement
4. Student self-evaluation
5. Documented observations

By assessing with a variety of measures, the teacher can build a portfolio of data that provides a more accurate picture of the student as a learner.  With this authentic, data-driven student portrait, teachers have the necessary information to do the problem-solving and detective work required for determining appropriate interventions.